a bank like wells fargo, u.s. ç bancorp, domestic banks with little exposure to weakened europe and very strong managements. citigroup, jpmorgan, morgan stanley with tremendous exposure to the continent. that's why at times i've had to dismiss the earnings per share gains entirely at the moment if the cohort was radically out of favor. but i never just forgot them. instead, i tried to figure out which ones can at times break the tug of the sector, the gravitational pull and which ones can really shine because if the sector falls back into favor, i've got to be ready. for example, ever since the market's gigantic bottom in 2009, we've seen many sectors of retail and individual stocks within those sectors outperform. i like to listen to the earnings calls of all the retailers. at given times, i'm rapt by the groups doing the best. by far the top performers during this period have been the discount stores, notably dollar general and dollar tree. when i see the markets money go to retail, i go back to my earnings re